Lions win playoff games and change the perception of what they can achieve

DETROIT — There is a commonly shared experience among those who have played for the Detroit Lions. A rite of passage, really. You're told you won't win anything. That this franchise is known for losing. Players know it all too well and have heard it all too many times.

“Oh, you guys are no good. You're not going to do anything.' Everybody on this team, I'm sure someone told them that,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said Sunday night. “You're with the Lions. You're not going to do anything. ''

Leave it to St. Brown – the man with more receipts than your accountant during tax season – to put it in layman's terms. This was his experience. Three years ago he joined a squad that was stripped to the core and ready for a new rebuild. The general perception? Why would this one be different? These are the lions after all. They weren't going to win anyone over at an introductory press conference. To change the way people view this city's football team, it was up to St. Brown and so many others acquired over the years to win when it matters most: in January.

“We know what the perception is when you play for the Detroit Lions,” St. Brown said Sunday, three years after this started, after the Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 to advance to the NFC Championship Game . “But we feel like we have an opportunity to change things – not just for this year, but for years to come.”

Three years ago. Then this thing started. It was when Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes were hired. It was the moment when players like St. Brown, Jared Goff, Penei Sewell and so many others arrived in Detroit and were told they would never win anything substantial as long as they donned the jersey of a franchise known for losing.

Many players had to experience the same loss as their predecessors, the same loss they were told they were good for. But for this team to get to where it is today, it was a necessary step. To change the perception of others, the Lions needed to know if their perception of themselves was real.

“When you're 0-10-1, you get to know people,” Campbell said last week. “You get to know players and coaches, people in the organization. And that's why you have the best insight into what those people are and how they are made, what drives them and what they are willing to do for the people around them. That's a much better perspective and view of people than when everything is going well and you have twelve wins.”

That's where the Lions' confidence in what they do comes from: that first season together. Left tackle Taylor Decker referred to a scene from HBO's “Hard Knocks,” which aired ahead of the 2022 season. The Lions were coming off a 3-13-1 season. One morning during training camp, the team was at full strength and the coaches turned up the intensity to prepare them for the upcoming season. They went fast because they were tested.

Perhaps Campbell noticed the eye rolling and muttered comments about the intensity level and gave a speech to his players.

Like everything else along the way, they remember.

“He said, 'Guys, trust me, I'm doing everything I can to put you in the best position possible,'” Decker recalled after Sunday's game. “'I'm not crazy, just trust me and just follow the plan.' That's what we did and we believe in each other. We believe in our coaches and it has become something very cool.”

That trust, between player and coach, is why the Lions are here. Those votes of confidence accumulate over time and manifest in ways that fans of this team could once only dream of, but are now witnessing in real time. We saw it in Week 1, when the Lions went to Kansas City and beat the Chiefs on banner night. We saw it in the wild-card round, when Goff defeated his former team and the quarterback he was traded for in Detroit's first playoff win in 32 years. The Lions are confident they can compete with any team in the league and win on any given Sunday. This is the team they were meant to be.

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It all led to Sunday. The Buccaneers were in town and the winner would go on to play for a trip to the Super Bowl. What you saw on Sunday was what the Lions expected. Stars like Goff (30-of-43 for 287 yards and two touchdowns), St. Brown (eight receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown), Aidan Hutchinson (one sack and three QB hits) and others played up their potential in a play-off match. Detroit's rookie class, which was criticized at the time of the draft, continues to thrive. This was the vision that was initially set out as the forces that would build this thing.

“I foresaw that we would have a chance to compete with the big boys, and that's where we are today,” Campbell said.

It's not just the stars, though. Take a look around this roster, look at Sunday's box score and you'll find unheralded players the Lions have identified as their guys, added to a roster built to win. Brock Wright, a free agent three years ago, has a thankless job as Detroit's No. 2 tight end. He doesn't often get media attention, that goes for rookie sensation Sam LaPorta. As a result, his contributions don't always make headlines. But in this game, when the Lions needed a big play, he caught a pass and ran his way through the Tampa Bay defense for a gain of 29, amid a tightly contested 10-10 ballgame.

Running back Craig Reynolds, a product of Kutztown University, also arrived in 2021. He is RB3 behind two stars. His opportunities to contribute on offense are few and far between, but this staff has a knack for picking spots. The last time these teams played, in Week 6, Reynolds saw action with both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery dealing with injuries. He provided perhaps the block of the year, paving the way for St. Brown to score in a 20-6 victory over the Bucs.

On Sunday, the Lions went back to Reynolds — his first rushing attempt since Halloween — for a fourth-down run that he finished in the end zone. Touchdown, Lions.

4th and goal? Lions go for it.

📺: #TBvsDET on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/x9nVpCrGhP

—NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024

And in the end, as the Lions looked to close out the game with one final stop, it came down to their defense. A group that has been questioned, criticized all season, needed a play. It got it from Derrick Barnes, a fourth-round linebacker who took three years to emerge as a starter on this defense. It was his first career interception and it helped the Lions punch their ticket to the NFC Championship Game.

DEFENDED THE DEN @derrickbarnes21 | #AllGrit pic.twitter.com/hGhOJ3lFXn

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 21, 2024

“They all had a vision, and so did we,” Barnes said in the locker room. “That's why you push yourself every week, every day. Because we know the potential we have and will accept nothing less.”

“We're going to take that group of guys to the NFC Championship Game,” Campbell said. “And they love football, they play football and that's what they respect, and they respect their teammates and nothing else. And when you can care more about the person next to you than yourself, you can do very special things, and that's where we are now with this group.”

That's how these lions are put together. They are unlike any Lions team that came before them, and they prove it when it matters most. They keep winning because of what they've been through together. They continue to make progress, they have a proof of concept and now want to prove to others that they really exist. They're heading to San Francisco to play in this franchise's first Super Bowl.

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After the game, as the controversy spread around St. Brown following his comments about changing perception, I stuck around and asked him if he feels that perception is changing based on what the Lions are doing. His answer was telling and offered a glimpse into the mind of a player chosen to play for this Detroit Lions.

“A little,” he said. “Not really. I mean, we'll see. Next week we got the game pick. They'll probably let San Fran win. I feel like you've just got to keep winning. If we win next week, we'll be lucky to go to the Super Bowl to go. I think winning cures everything. I think that's the biggest thing.”

Look what it's already done for this franchise.

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(Photo by Amon-Ra St. Brown: Nic Antaya/Getty Images)